I spent about a month and a half carving a background for my 90g out of various pieces of foam that I had siliconed together, then covered it in 3 layers of quikrete. I siliconed it to the tank then added another layer of quikrete around all of the edges with about an inch overlap onto the glass. It looked awesome for about 3 hours, until the top 2/3 broke off and shot out of the water.
So I am starting over. Since last time it was a lot of cobbled together pieces, I figured this time if I create a solid block and carve from that the stress would be more evenly dispersed and less likely to break apart. I hadn't planned on sealing it with anything, instead I will submerge it for 30 days with a filter running and regular water changes to make sure it is inert by the time I am ready to add fish.
Does this sound like a good plan to anyone else that has done something similar? I also just read where someone had problems with plecos eating through quikrete, and I will definitely have plecos. Would sealing it be enough to keep that from happening? I am not opposed to the idea of creating a fiberglass shell, and then coating that with quikrete to get the look right. It would certainly keep it from floating at least. I have thought about adding in real rocks throughout to add more weight as well, but I have no idea how to do that.
I attached a picture of the background I made before it broke, because I am still really proud of how it came out. Basically though, any advice on how to get that look to actually stay in my tank and not get eaten would be really helpful.
So I am starting over. Since last time it was a lot of cobbled together pieces, I figured this time if I create a solid block and carve from that the stress would be more evenly dispersed and less likely to break apart. I hadn't planned on sealing it with anything, instead I will submerge it for 30 days with a filter running and regular water changes to make sure it is inert by the time I am ready to add fish.
Does this sound like a good plan to anyone else that has done something similar? I also just read where someone had problems with plecos eating through quikrete, and I will definitely have plecos. Would sealing it be enough to keep that from happening? I am not opposed to the idea of creating a fiberglass shell, and then coating that with quikrete to get the look right. It would certainly keep it from floating at least. I have thought about adding in real rocks throughout to add more weight as well, but I have no idea how to do that.
I attached a picture of the background I made before it broke, because I am still really proud of how it came out. Basically though, any advice on how to get that look to actually stay in my tank and not get eaten would be really helpful.
